


Fast Food Trauma

by jubjubird



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Flustered Harry Potter, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Pre-Slash, characters are very OOC, don’t @ me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27653242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jubjubird/pseuds/jubjubird
Summary: Does working at Dairy Queen have any long-lasting effects?...Yes, yes it does.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Comments: 8
Kudos: 59





	Fast Food Trauma

**Author's Note:**

> i’m only actually posting this because i’m sleep-deprived and delirious

Tom walked into the new coffee shop— Padfoot’s Mud Puddle— bright and early the first morning of his current internship. It started at 8— the internship, that is— but he wanted to get there early to make a good first impression. So, at 6:30 on the dot, Tom left for his morning coffee.

He had heard good things about this place, despite the fact that it only opened two months ago. Tom would’ve come sooner if it weren’t for the crowds of people darkening the door of the little shop 24/7.

Pushing open the entrance and hearing a tinkling noise overhead, Tom walked in to see what all the fuss was about. The lonely sight that greeted him was a single worker with messy black hair, sleepily wiping down the same spot on the counter in front of him over and over again. 

At the sound of the bell, he looked up.

”Hi, welcome to Padfoot’s. What can I get for ya’?” The young man asked, pasting a smile on his face. It was quite obviously fake, especially when you add it to the dark circles under his glowing— glowing?— green eyes that suggested he hadn’t slept in six months.

Tom averts his attention from the cashier’s frazzled state to the menu behind him. ”A venti latte with almond milk and seven shots of espresso,” he says finally, sticking with his regular brew. He gains a bit of amusement from the slightly alarmed look on the face of the employee— whose name, Tom reads on the name tag pinned to his apron, is Harry.

Snapping out of his stupor, Harry yawns and heads toward wherever the coffee is made, finishing writing Tom’s order in his notepad as he walks.

Turning to survey the empty shop, Tom’s interest perks up when he spots a shelf on the other side of the room. It’s long, painted black, and covers a good portion of the wall it is built into. The framework wasn’t the interesting part, though.

Sitting on the shelf was no less than a dozen coffee mugs of many different colors and designs. Upon closer inspection, he noted the names inscribed on the cups, underneath the main symbol or design.

Tom sees a mug with a stack of books and the name Hermione painted on it, one with the name Ron and a chess set, and on the outer edge closest to the door is a dark green mug with a pair of glasses and a lightning bolt. 

Leaning closer to it, Tom saw that the name written on the cup in a messy golden scrawl was the name of the cashier, Harry. 

Making a mental note of it, Tom turned back around to study the rest of the room for a few moments before Harry came back up behind the counter with Tom’s drink in one hand and a cardboard sleeve in the other, obviously struggling to fit it around the scorching cup without burning himself. He was failing spectacularly until he realized that there was a surface in front of him that he could set everything on.

After an awkward minute of Tom standing there, though the man would deny any discomfort he had felt during the time, Harry cleared his throat.

“That’ll be $5.64,” he said, running a hand over his unruly hair. That was obviously out of habit, Tom noted.

While handing over his money, the cashier picked up Tom’s drink and tipped it upside-down absently. Both men froze, Tom out of befuddlement and irritation, Harry out of shock and mortification as his sleep-addled brain began to realize where he was, and what he had just done. As Tom was opening his mouth to vocalize his agitation, Harry had already begun his slightly panicked apologies.

“Shit, I am so, so sorry… I’ll get you another drink, on the house… I knew I should’ve never worked at Dairy Queen… Even Ron took Hermione’s side in that argument...” he rambled, muttering the last bit as he mopped up the spilled coffee that had gotten all over the floor and the counter.

Despite himself, Tom thought the cashier looked adorable blushing like that. He just knew somehow that he had to make it happen again. Smirking at that thought, he accepted the second coffee graciously and walked out of the coffee shop that had just become an integral part of his morning routine.


End file.
